FINAL BILL REPORT

                 ESHB 2417

                         C 281 L 98

                     Synopsis as Enacted

Brief Description:  Authorizing local vehicle license fees adopted to fund specific projects.

Sponsors:  By House Committee on Transportation Policy & Budget (originally sponsored by Representatives Pennington, Mielke, Hatfield, Doumit, Ogden, Carlson, Alexander and Hankins).

House Committee on Finance

House Committee on Transportation Policy & Budget

Senate Committee on Transportation

Background: Counties are authorized to impose a vehicle license fee of up to $15.  The fee must be levied countywide.   The fee is applied to all passenger-type vehicles, except "light" (6,000 pounds or less) pickup trucks. The revenues from this fee must be used for transportation purposes.

There is no equivalent local option license fee available for cities to levy.

Summary: Cities located in Cowlitz County may impose the local option vehicle license fee within city boundaries upon a majority vote of citizens.   Residents living in the city boundary will not be charged the fee twice.  The fee will expire when the bonded indebtedness on the transportation project is retired or at the end of the funding period proposed on the ballot proposition, whichever is sooner.

Both the existing county local-option vehicle license fee and the new city-imposed vehicle license fee will apply to passenger-type pickup trucks (6,000 pounds or less).  (This corrects a drafting error in the original law.)

The local option vehicle registration fee does not apply for a vehicle's initial registration period.

Votes on Final Passage:

House916

Senate3015(Senate amended)

House935(House concurred)

Effective:June 11, 1998